Wearside company Footy.com has a strong goal of growth

Chris Cordner

An online company with sport at its heart is hoping to race ahead and become a global winner.

Comparison shopping site Footy.com was only formed in December last year and is based at the Rainton Bridge Business Park.

Footy.com's Chris Nixon nominated for Portfolio Business Awards

The company, which was developed by an organisation called Leighton Labs, may be in its infancy but it “has huge aspirations,” said project director Chris Nixon.

He added: “We are looking for more people to push the product forward.”

Between four and five new staff are needed in the short-term to add to the eight-strong team.

Chris said the hope was to “hopefully grow at a rate of knots.”

Based on a vision of a single website that can collect, collate and compare prices for all sporting equipment, the intention is to develop a global eCommerce platform for the billions of football fans worldwide

Chris Nixon, project director at Footy.com

Footy.com is the latest entry in the Sunderland Echo Portfolio Business Awards, and has been nominated in the New Business of the Year category.

The nomination for the business said: “Given the huge disparity in pricing of football related equipment and merchandise, Footy.com aims to give consumers the broadest choice of product in the market.”

It said the intention was “to develop a global eCommerce platform for the billions of football fans worldwide.”

Footy.com joins an ever-growing list of nominations for the Portfolio competition, but we want even more. Find out how to enter below.

Footy.com's Chris Nixon nominated for Portfolio Business Awards

This year’s awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Stadium of Light on Thursday, October 15, and entries are open now.

We’re off to a great start with many nominations already received for this year’s awards.

But there is still plenty of time for more people to put in nominations in a range of categories listed on the form below.

Why not nominate your favourite company, or even put forward your own, and put them in contention for honours.

We have some fantastic backers on board for this year’s event. Make it Sunderland is again our headline sponsor, and will sponsor our overall Business of the Year Award, as well as a Lifetime Achievement award, which is in the sponsor’s gift.

This year sees a new category, also sponsored by Make It Sunderland, which will recognise the contribution social enterprises make to the city.